Storm-stranded motorists fill area motels

March 13, 2002|By Michael Jones

Assistant general manager at the restaurant, Mandy Cook, reported she had heard a loud crash around 7:30 a.m. only to discover the large metal and plastic sign had fallen to the ground in the parking lot between the restaurant and the Hampton Inn. "There were quite a few cars around, but nobody was hit by the sign," said Cook.

At the height of the blizzard Saturday evening, road conditions deteriorated to the point people were scrambling to find a place to seek refuge from the storm. Pat Tholl, manager at the Red Roof Inn in Gaylord, said her establishment was full at 10 p.m., and by 11 p.m., all hotels and motels in Gaylord had put out their no-vacancy signs.

The Michigan State Police Gaylord post began receiving calls from area hotels shortly after 11 p.m. notifying them of travelers in need of a place to spend the night. After several phone calls, arrangements were made through the Gaylord Salvation Army to put stranded motorists up at the meeting room of the United Way Building.

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Although not the best of accommodations, United Way Director Natalie Davis said 18 people spent the night rather than take their chances on the roads, battling the blizzard. "It's nice we have this building to use in case of emergencies such as this," said Davis.

In the aftermath of the weekend storm, several thousand customers in the Great Lakes Energy 26-county service area were without power. According to Dave Guzniczak, communications director at Great Lakes Energy, high winds hit the counties of Charlevoix, Antrim, Mason, Lake, Newaygo and Oceana counties hardest. Closer to home, Guzniczak reported scattered outages for customers in Otsego County. Almost all customers had their power restored by Monday morning, with the exception of a small pocket in Antrim and Lake counties.

Consumers Power reported 1,229 customers in the Bagley Township area were without power for a short time Saturday evening.

Meteorologist Brian Hirsch from the National Weather Service's Gaylord office said there have been four major winter storm events from Feb. 24 through March 10. "It's been a pretty stormy period we have seen here the past few weeks," said Hirsch, who noted this past weekend's storm had a little bit of everything.Warm temperatures, rain and freezing rain, snow and strong winds from Friday through Sunday all came courtesy of a single storm system, Hirsch reported. "Last week we saw quite a warm spell here," said Hirsch, who noted by 4:30 Saturday morning the weather service had issued a blizzard warning, something which hasn't happened since 2000.

By the time things started to quiet down late in the day Sunday, Hirsch said the Gaylord area saw a blanket of 8 inches of new snow.

Otsego County Road Commission road crews were busy trying to keep drifting county roads open Saturday and Sunday. Mike Roper, road commission manager, said several side roads were closed at times during the height of the storm. "Morgan Road and several other roads out in the country had drifted shut. We were getting them plowed out as soon as we got calls on them."

Roper said this is the first time this year the county has sent out their snowblowers to clean up the banks of snow which were building up alongside the roads. "These past two weekends have been harder than the rest of the winter," said Roper.

By Monday morning the main roads had been salted and sanded and were in good shape according to Roper. "Today is pretty much just a matter of cleanup. I didn't hear of too much debris from downed trees needing to be cleaned up from our crews."

While snowmobilers are always eager for a good dose of snow to improve snowmobile conditions, this weekend's storm proved to be too much of a good thing for the SnoCross snowmobile races at the Otsego County Fairgrounds Sunday.

Due to the cold temperatures and blizzard conditions, Sunday's races were canceled and rescheduled for next weekend in Geneva, Wisc. Sunday's races in Wisconsin also mark the end of the SnoCross season.